Paul McCartney Archive Collection - Tug Of War & Pipes Of Peace coming! (Part One)

I can agree that the pace of the archive-series are not all that fast.
Regarding the way and order the releases go it s pretty obvious that they pick from albums importance or commercial success(Mccartney 2 might be the exemption but was a brilliant pairing with Mccartney)
Maybe they also(we will never know for sure) pick them according to Maccas preferences.
With that said I am(so far) very pleased with the quality of the reissues-ecspecially the deluxe-editions. I have been collecting boxed sets since the eighties and have rarely seen such beautiful executed ones as Ram,McCartney 2 and WOA. The various books photo-prins and other stuff inside this must be considered when discussing the price. Limited photo prints like those included in the boxed sets could separately catch a price as almost the whole set.
Regarding the content-there is no doubt that there is more ,much more in the vaults. But these sets are not foremost rarities sets but reissues of particular albums. With that said-what s on and what s left out will always a thing that opinions will differ. I am personally pleased with most of the selections but some things could of course have been done differently. But you can t please everybody-that s for sure.
I am looking forward to Tug of War and Pipes of peace and personally don t care or speculate very much is what happen after that -time will tell.
And of course-sooner or later there should be a real rarites set-I hope

 

Don't think so. Maybe some outtakes, but not that much stuff. Red Rose Speedway, on the other hand...

 

True- not much unreleased from the Wild Life session but plenty from the planned double- album Red Rose Speedway

 

I remember seeing etcetera post some info about McCarntey & RAM-era outtakes that didn't make the boxsets, but were being considered. One was a beautiful home demo of Some People Never Know by Paul and an unknown male visitor he duets with and the others were some different versions and mixes of Dear Friend, which were considered to be very good. These could fit in well on a Wild Life boxset I think.

 

I can't believe that I have to wait longer for Wild Life and Red Rose. Sorry. Just had to say that.
I'm getting old. Need the deluxe editions and appropriate bonus tracks.

 

Wild Life sounds like a bunch of outtakes and bonus tracks themseves...

There's probably not much unreleased stuff from Wild Life because the album itself sounds more like a bunch of half-finished songs. Paul and band seemed rushed to get something out without polishing it up beyond sounding like rough runthroughs. I'd be more interested in the rough runthroughs of some of his more polished albums such as Back To The Egg or Tug Of War/Pipes Of Peace.

 

It's definitely one of my all time favorites.

The album has an incredibly warm flow to it from start to finish, despite having one or two questionable songs.

In contrast, Pipes of Peace has an OK side 1 and falls apart completely starting with "The Man"...

 

Where do I preorder LOL

 

In other words, Paul didn't have time to second guess himself on Wild Life, which is a good thing IMO.

 

Plus...
"Bip Bop" played at normal speed
"Love Is Strange" planned UK single edit (never heard, although white label copies do exist)
"Great Cock And Seagull Race" (ok, we had an early version on "Ram" but there are at least 2 versions with Wings overdubs that we know of. And with "Hey Diddle", Paul sets a precedent of issueing two different versions of the same unreleased song).
"Mary Had A Little Lamb" (alternate mix released on the German single)
Any audio or video of Wings early rehearsals at the ICA (we have some bits of this already).
Wings rehearsing "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" in the living room at Cavendish (we have this too already, but a good quality version would be extraordinary)

 

Put me in the really-disappointed-that-these-2-albums-are-next camp. I would have much preferred Wild Life and RRS. Ah well, at least I'll save some money in 2015.

There was a clue on YouTube that these 2 albums would be next. I noticed the other day that the video for Say Say Say, which had like 30 million views, has been removed. Not sure who or why but maybe it's connected to the reissue? I hate when they do that. There are all sorts of Beatles videos and clips that have been removed too.

 

Is the 3:20 version booted on The Apple Singles Collection Vol. 7 a fake?

 

It has always been my impression, specially considering the fact that The Apple Singles Collection is mostly a collection of wrong mixes and versions...

 

If done correctly, should be like getting second album of McCartney II -- a treasure trove.

 

Re the "too recent" idea, it's worth remembering that Tug of War came out only five and a half years after Wings Over America and two years after McCartney II, both of which we now have in the Archive Collection. That's not a big gap.

I suspect it seems bigger to us in our minds, and there is an emotional wall for people, because of two distinct moments: 1) the end of Wings, which to most fans equates to the end of the 1970s and the first full decade after the Beatles; and 2) John Lennon's death, which is a decisive demarcation line for many people between the Beatles and full solo Beatles era (with all of them producing music and the nebulous "Will they ever reunite?" conundrum). Especially with regard to the latter event, whose significance can't be overstated, everything changed. To a great many Beatles fans, psychologically, there is Before Lennon's Murder and there is After Lennon's Murder. Tug of War is the first McCartney output in the After category and thus the beginning of a new era that seems more recent than it really is, and more distinctive because there was no more band -- no Beatles, no Wings, just McCartney and whichever people he chose to work with. On that level, excepting perhaps McCartney and McCartney II as pure solo albums and Ram as its own special scenario, there's really no comparison between McCartney's 1982 and onward output and what came before it.

 

1) But isn't one of the stated purposes of the Archive Collection to offer critics and the public an opportunity to reappraise McCartney's catalog and reassess the merits of the individual works, especially relative to the time in which they were created/released? If so, then that seems to argue for putting out some of his lesser known and more controversial works, to give them a fair chance at a dispassionate evaluation. If McCartney stopped the Archive Collection today, based on what has been released so far, one might dub the project "The Paul McCartney Victory Tour." I suspect he wants more and better out of this project than just that. He seems quite proud of how much Ram has gained in stature from when the critics ripped it to shreds. Likely he'd welcome a similar measure of belated respect for some of his lesser-known, more recent albums as well.

2) Lack of commercial popularity is not necessarily synonymous with poor product. I see Press to Play, and Pipes of Peace for that matter, and even McCartney and McCartney II, as being albums with a few definite highlights, a larger middle ground of decent if not overly memorable songs, and a few clunkers -- not unlike most of his other albums, really, if we're honest about it. McCartney and (especially) McCartney II seem to have gained in appreciation from their recent re-releases and have gotten a more objective evaluation of their strengths than they received at the time of initial release. As noted, Ram, too, has come a long way in the eyes of some people, especially critics, since the time when it was made. Couldn't that also perhaps be the case for Press to Play to some extent or another?

3) Press to Play sounds like the time when it was made. Is it really so bad, or does it just sound like a record that someone else could have recorded? There is a difference. Maybe people don't look back too fondly on the mid-1980s British sound at this point. But later on? Who knows? Time has a way of making things both palatable and appealing. Venus and Mars sounds dated to the mid-1970s, with its outer space feel. But that is one of its charms to a lot of people. Wild Life's rough-hewn texture isn't everybody's cup of tea, but for those who like the early 1970s sound and looser production feel, it has its moments and is comfortable. As Paul himself has said about his overall back catalog, paraphrasing here: "Each album has something." Press to Play really isn't different in that regard. I'd welcome the opportunity to give it an updated listen, with a deluxe edition that provides a lot more context and information and potentially some bonus audio that sheds new light on the creative process behind the album. Let's hope we get that chance someday.

 

I agree with your sentiment, Freddie, but I think there are two key differences between albums such as McCartney/McCartney II and Press To Play. Firstly, there has been a greater appreciation in the music world generally of the wider aesthetic that the two self-titled albums share. That provides a platform from which its possible to speculate that they would be well received if reissued. The over-produced 80s sound may well still be popular with middle-aged fans who grew up with it (such as my good self) but still hasn't become more widely appreciated. As a result, I just don't think the vibe is there for a re-appreciation of Press To Play.

Secondly, I just don't think McCartney himself is interested in the record. Clearly, he has great emotional attachment to all the albums issued in the Archive Collection so far. I think this is the key element that many have missed in their attempts to "work out" why we've received the albums we have so far. Sure, sales and commercial success play a part in whether an artist looks back fondly at an album: I'm sure that if Band on the Run had bombed McCartney wouldn't happily regale us relentlessly with the tale of how half his band quit just before they were due to fly out. But albums like Ram and McCartney clearly mean something to Paul: he's proud of them even if they did get slated at the time of release and he wants to see them get a chance to shine. But he has also been quite laid back about the notion that he's made some clunkers, and I don't think he's bothered about proving that every album was actually a good one. I short, I don't think McCartney is remotely interested in getting Press To Play re-evaluated.

Which is a shame, because I still love it and would dearly love to get the opportunity you outline at the end of your post.

 

The original speculated release schedule (fake or not) showed PTP with tons of bonus material, far more than most of the other releases. There's certainly plenty of B Sides and remixes that could go in to making it a really comprehensive package.

If they could release all this at a similar price then that may help sales figures and justify the release.

 

I'm hoping that over time Paul decides to reappraise Press To Play. There's nothing like getting older to make you realise how good the past really was!

 

I LOVE both albums - I'll buy even if there are no bonus tracks.

 

I agree with you in general, Paul, that his fondness for an album is also a factor in which ones get the Archive treatment; but there's another factor to consider -- Paul's opinions about his albums are often influenced by OTHER people's opinions of his albums, and are therefore open to change. A great example is RAM -- an album that Paul disavowed (or at least never mentioned) for years, until he told the now-familiar story of a fan skiing past him and shouting, "Hey Paul, I loved RAM!" We've heard similar stories since then -- Paul tells a reporter that someone told him "Coming Up" is being played "in all the clubs," or that Spielberg told him that Magical Mystery Tour was an underground classic, or that Bono told him that "All the kids are listening to Wings now!" Paul is a people-pleaser, and I think the work of his that he likes the LEAST is the stuff that didn't please ANY of the people; so when he gets some indication that there some fondness for this stuff that he's been assuming was rubbish, he is understandably eager to believe it. It's always amusing to me that Paul never seems to accept these random opinions as just, well, random opinions -- he always takes them as some kind of proof that Maybe I was right all along!

So really, all we need to do is plant the seed. The so-called "RAM Army" carried the torch for that album in the '90s, and it's reputation was rehabilitated in Paul's mind. So we need to form a "Press To Play Army" (not quite as catchy, is it?) to convince Paul that he's got another "lost classic" from the 1980s. If we could get just five people to "randomly" mention to Paul that they LOVED Press To Play within, say, a few months (I would avoid NYC hotels, obviously! ), Paul will become convinced that the entire world has re-considered the album and that it is ripe for a Super-Deluxe Archive set. We can do this, people!!

 

THAT...will be Coming Soon.

 

Press gang?

 

Press platoon?

 

All this talk is dePRESSing. ...

Arnie